New Organ Discovered in the Human Body

By Ariana Marisol

A new organ was discovered hiding in plain sight in the human body. It was described by the Italian polymath Leanardo de Vinci in 1508, but was ignored through the centuries until now!

Known as the mesentery, this organ was previously thought to be only a few fragmented structures in the digestive system, but scientists have realized that it is in fact one, continuous organ.

While its function is still unclear, the discovery opens up an entirely new era of science, according to J. Calvin Coffey, a researcher at the University Hospital Limerick who first discovered it.

“When we approach it like every other organ… we can categorize abdominal disease in terms of this organ,” he said.

“Now we have established anatomy and the structure. The next step is the function. If you understand the function you can identify abnormal function, and then you have disease.

“Put them all together and you have the field of mesenteric science.”

The research is published in The Lancet medical journal.

Now that it has been reclassified, medical students across the world are being taught that the mesentery is a distinct organ.

Gray’s Anatomy, the world’s most famous medical textbook, has been updated to include the new definition.

Medical students and researchers will now investigate what role the mesentery might play in abdominal diseases, which could lead to new treatments.

The organ itself is a double fold of peritoneum which is the lining of the abdominal cavity that holds the intestine to the wall of our abdomen.

It was described by the Italian polymath Leanardo de Vinci in 1508, but was ignored through the centuries until now.

Although there are considered to be five organs in the human body, there are now actually 79, including the mesentery.

The heart, brain, liver, lungs, and kidney are the vital organs, while there are another 74 organs that play a major role in keeping us healthy.

Ariana Marisol is a contributing staff writer for REALfarmacy.com, where this article first appeared. She is an avid nature enthusiast, gardener, photographer, writer, hiker, dreamer, and lover of all things sustainable, wild, and free. Ariana strives to bring people closer to their true source, Mother Nature. She graduated The Evergreen State College with an undergraduate degree focusing on Sustainable Design and Environmental Science. Follow her adventures on Instagram.

Photo Credit:
J Calvin Coffey, D Peter O’Leary, Henry Vandyke Carter